Assembly, School Board filing deadline Friday

The filing deadline for candidates running for mayor, assembly and school board in Sitka is looming. So far, four candidates have filed to run for assembly and two for school board.

In the mayor’s race, Mim McConnell is running for reelection. No other candidate has yet filed to challenge her.

McConnell said she’s “just not quite done yet.”

“One of the things I discovered is, there is no manual for being a mayor,” she said. “Each mayor really has to kind of figure it out for themselves. There really isn’t even much in city code or anything, so it’s kind of mind-boggling. And really the mayor as a person kind of shapes what their term of service is like.”

McConnell says she’d like to see the Blue Lake Dam project through to completion, and look at future energy needs – “at some point Blue Lake won’t be enough,” she said. She also wants to focus on Sitka’s roads, and the effort to jump-start bulk water sales.

One big issue, she says, is keeping more young people in town — and a key to that is more affordable housing.

“I would like to see the assembly continue to support the community land trust idea, with providing permanently affordable housing,” she said.

McConnell is the owner of a web and graphic design company, Shelter Cove Publishing. She’s also the executive director of the Sitka Community Development Corporation, the nonprofit behind the community land trust.

Meanwhile, two assembly members are reaching the end of their three-year terms: Mike Reif and Pete Esquiro.

Reif has said he will not run for re-election. And as of 4 p.m. Thursday (8-7-14), four candidates had filed to run for the two seats: Dennie Daniels, Tristan Guevin, Richard Parmelee, and Aaron Wamsley.

School board members Tim Fulton and Tonia Rioux have also reached the end of their terms. As of Thursday, Fulton had filed to run for reelection. Former school board member Tom Conley also filed his intention to run.

The deadline to file is 5 p.m. Friday, August 8. The municipal election will take place on October 7.